Imperial Civil War
:"In the end, it was not the JSDF who ruined the Empire but the very core value, pride and principle of the Empire itself" — Emperor Molt laments the decline of the Empire after the Imperial Civil War. The Imperial Civil War (also referred as the War of Self-destruction by princess Pina and the pro-peace senators) is the civil war between Zorzal's pro-war faction and Pina's pro-peace faction, aided by the JSDF. Overview During the war, Zorzal and his cohorts manage to inflict some damage to the JSDF due to their experience in fighting the JSDF, with various guerrilla tactics and early countermeasures against the JSDF such as disguising Imperial troops as refugees or sending monsters out on a rampage in the areas surrounding Alnus. Zorzal and his cohorts stubbornly refuse to adapt to the JSDF's equipment and tactics, refusing to arm their troops with guns or even attempting to reverse-engineer the JSDF's weaponry, along with their vast underestimation of modern technology and tactics despite having seen numerous examples earlier such as paradrops and securing key zones. All of their tactics and countermeasures are short-lived, as while they show an initial promise, the tactic completely backfires as all participants are eventually killed while little to no damage is dealt to the JSDF. Zorzal's scorched earth policies is another clear indicator as to how they refuse to learn about the JSDF. They fail to realize that the JSDF have single supply points and that the resources used for their technology far comprehends what they are used to, such as their vehicles operating on gas, which is non-existent in the Empire. The JSDF also emphasize on swift surgical strikes with a tactical retreat, whereas Zorzal and his lackeys would simply occupy an area in the long-term. The JSDF also ensure that they have enough rations to sustain themselves, where as Zorzal's forces have to scavenge whenever their supplies rapidly deplete. During his attempts to bring the civilian population against the JSDF, Zorzal attempted to have his men impersonate the JSDF. However, this plan horrifically backfires due to the sheer incompetence in the planning of this tactic. The clothes used to impersonate the JSDF are shabby and nowhere near the quality of a JSDF soldier's clothing, their inability to speak Japanese fluently, using their own weapons, not disguising the officers in their brutal crackdown and leaving survivors prevent the tactic from working as expected. The atrocities relayed by the survivors of the massacres easily turns public opinion against Zorzal and his lackeys. Despite magic being seldomly used by Zorzal's forces, the very few mages that remain in his army such as Godasen learn about Lelei's magic from information leaks coming from the magic city of Rondel. However, they have very little information and have no idea as to how to properly use it. They also view Lelei's magic in high esteem, even though she stated that her magic at most is the equivalent of a grenade and not a tank shell. Zorzal's lack of interest in magic due to being a "cowardly" way to fight means that the few mages that join his army are graduate level, and not master level like Godasen. Zorzal also makes an enemy of the entire city of Rondel without realizing that their mages could easily overwhelm his army if they so desired, and they simply supported the JSDF instead. Zorzal and his cohorts lack of intelligence further apply to their tactics, as he still sticks with his medieval tactics that are ill-suited for fighting a modern army. They appear to never grasp the power gap between their army and the JSDF, and as the Empire mostly fought bloody close-quarter wars, which the JSDF never did. They simply encouraged the use of human wave attacks, refusing to support their soldiers with ranged support that would have slightly helped the melee fighters in battle. Several pro-war senators even believed adding additional armor to their soldiers' shields would protect them better against the JSDF, being completely unaware that they possessed ammo capable of easily shredding medieval armor to pieces. They also viewed the JSDF as cowardly barbarians who would not fight honorably, and as such never attempted to do so themselves, believing they would stoop down to their level if they did. The employment of the Oprichnina in order to boost Imperial troops morale creates a severely counter-productive atmosphere as these witless commissars simply promote the idea of human wave attacks, even in the face of total defeat. Their ability to refuse to look into other tactics makes them heavily disliked by the Imperial troops, and their tactics simply result in massive casualties with no damage to the enemy. After many costly and insignificantly pyrrhic victories; failed tactics as well as the shallow thinking of Zorzal and his cohorts results in the destruction of his entire army and Zorzal's death by Tyuule. Furthermore, the Haryo tribe is decimated to near-extinction, forcing them to go underground and never pose a threat to the Special Region in the future. The JSDF is responsible for most of the fighting, as Zorzal had taken most of the Empire's military might, and as such the amount of loyalists in the Imperial Army were very low, as they could only muster up to 5,000, most if not all of which had been released from the Ginza Incident. Demi-human forces assisted the legitimate government, such as dark elves, centaurs and dwarves. The loyalist forces simply assisted the JSDF in clearing out Zorzal's forces, due to the JSDF's superior firepower. The mages of Rondel provided slightly more support to the JSDF, such as treating minor wounds with their magic, but they could not treat serious or fatal wounds, which is where the JSDF took over. Aftermath :"We have lost, victory belongs to the JSDF, not us." — Pina Co Lada stated the final result of the Imperial Civil War, depicted in light novel Gate Gaiden volume 1, chapter 1. The Empire's lands, cities and villages now lie in ruin from the useless Scorched Earth Tactic and the Imperial Scorch Earth Atrocities. Due to the Empire's self-destruction, the former vassal states such as Mudwan, League Principality, Alguna and Elbe become much stronger than the Empire and declare independence, forming their own nations. Though they could have easily wiped out the remnants of the Empire, they chose not to because the JSDF would easily wipe them out if they did. Despite the grim circumstances for the Empire, Piña takes it as a lesson, as it taught the Empire about humility and outside of the Empire's domain in Falhart, there are enemies outside its boundaries that they have no chance of defeating. The Empire is forced to admit that they are not the center of the universe, and both Piña and Molt must kneel and admit defeat, as the JSDF were the actual victors of the war. Under Pina regime, the government turns to democracy to make sure a tyrant like Zorzal will never take control of the Empire ever again in the future. The utterly useless scorch-earth policy conducted by Zorzal and his cohorts not only damages the Empire's economy, but also the trust of the citizens who were victims of his atrocities. Piña is forced to slowly rebuild the trust of the people, and bans the use of scorched-earth policies as it does nothing to stop an enemy like the JSDF and just causes harm to the Empire itself. Finally, in order to make amends to the Warrior Bunnies, Piña releases an official apology, frees all enslaved Warrior Bunnies and returns their rightful land to them. The Oprichnina are disbanded, and due to their role in the war, its remaining members are forced into banditry to survive. Ironically, only Tyuule is honored as a hero in the end for killing Zorzal, while Zorzal and the rest of his generals and pro-war senators are condemned and cursed for their suicidal and pointless war against the JSDF. Trivia * Pina's quotes of the result of the Imperial Civil War is based on the final quotes of the samurai in the famous Japanese movie Seven Samurai. This quote states clearly that in the end, the JSDF is only force remain intact and retain their dominion over the Special Region in far future while the Empire officially lost their status as a major power due to Zorzal's geopolitical suicide. This fact is just like in the Seven Samurai, as the samurai lost their comrades and being forgotten later on while the farmers they saved, continuing with their life in joy. Gallery 332.jpg|Itami's gang and the Rose Order of Knight fighting Zorzal's force. Kuchie02.jpg|Imperial Troops with the support of Ogres charge blindly to their doom in front of the line of machine guns and tanks. Category:Wars Category:Events